Systemic fungal infections are a prevalent health problem impacting immunocompromised patients such as organ transplanted patients and patients treated with chemotherapy. Several known fungicidal agents are currently in use for treating fungal infections. One class of such agents is “polyenes” which act to kill fungal cells by targeting the fungal cell membrane. Amphotericin B (AMB), a polyene macrolide antibiotic first isolated from the soil bacterium Streptormyces nodosus, has been used for the last 60 years as a “gold standard” antifungal drug for the treatment of a wide array of systemic mycotic infections and parasitic-derived leishmanial disease. Amphotericin B has also been successfully used in treating Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease caused by protozoa. However, AMB has been associated with a variety of potentially harmful side effects including but not limited to nephrotoxicity. Due to the often dose-limiting toxicity of this natural product, mortality rates for systemic fungal infections persist near 50%.
In addition, AMB has poor solubility in water, and thus attempts have been made to formulate AMB using a variety of technologies such as liposomes and water soluble colloidal complexes.